This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.
Pretrial conferences are meetings held before a trial begins. A judge can call one of these meetings at any time, either on their own or because one of the parties asked for it. Both sides in the case must show up ready to talk about the issues.
These meetings are used to plan out how the case will move forward. The judge and the parties can talk about things like narrowing down the legal disputes, sharing evidence, and setting a schedule. Anything agreed to at the meeting gets written down in an order that controls how the rest of the case is handled.
If someone fails to follow the rules set at a pretrial conference, the judge can impose penalties. This means ignoring a pretrial order is a serious matter that can hurt your case.
